DAVID KUZIO joined in the fun in Las Vegas in the lead-up to the big games at the Allegiant Stadium on Saturday.
THE ANNOUNCEMENT that Super League would be heading to Las Vegas initially met with mixed reviews.
But it is safe to say that those who made the trip felt that it was more than worth it.
In England, we are perhaps not used to Rugby League being centre stage. But Wigan Warriors and Warrington Wolves and their supporters are embracing the limelight as they rubbed shoulders with the elite from the NRL in a festival of Rugby League.
From the moment we landed at the Harry Reid International Airport we could sense that this was not going to be a normal Rugby League trip.
The cynics said before the weekend that Super League would be an afterthought and it would be bad for our sport. But that is as far away from the truth as it is possible to get.
On the taxi ride from the airport to the Excalibur Casino & Hotel – the place where a lot of Wigan and Warrington fans are staying – a car with an advertisement video billboard attached to its rear drove past us.
This video was showing highlights from the Super League and NRL and encouraging people to get their tickets for the game at the Allegiant Stadium.
It was a bizarre scene, but it became a talking point. Several cars had been hired to drive up and down the strip all day to get the message across.
Walking along the strip you could see vehicles and billboards advertising David Copperfield, Blue Man Group or Penn & Teller, but now it was Rugby League’s turn. It’s hard to explain the excitement of seeing a large video screen showing a diving Liam Marshall scoring a try as you waited to watch the spectacular Bellagio Fountains, which were completed in 1998 and cost 40 million dollars, which is one of the most photographed places in the United States.
It wasn’t just the video screens that brought the excitement. The sight of thousands of Rugby League shirts parading around Las Vegas was breathtaking.
Aside from the Magic Weekend, it is very rare to walk around a town or city and see Rugby League shirts every 20 yards. And this was not just about Wigan and Warrington; it was about British Rugby League in general.
Hull KR fans mingled with Featherstone Rovers fans and Widnes Vikings supporters drank with Wakefield Trinity fans. Everyone from the UK who was in Las Vegas was there to celebrate Rugby League on the biggest stage possible.
Talking of stages, the build-up to the game has been something special. Events were scheduled at the Resorts World hotel, with every competing team having their moment in the sun with autograph signings and photo opportunities.
The queues to see the likes of Bevan French, Matt Dufty, Cameron McInnes, Nathan Cleary, Corey Horsburgh and Dallin Watene-Zelezniak seemed to go on for miles, but no-one minded, as it was a festival atmosphere and everyone was having the time of their lives.
All these meet and greet opportunities were thrilling for the fans, but that wasn’t even the main attraction. Thousands of people gathered in Downtown Las Vegas at Freemont Street on Thursday evening as the celebrations continued.
All four NRL teams, Wigan, Warrington, England Women and the Jillaroos embraced the massive crowd as they took to the stage. The sight of the England team dancing down the red carpet highlighted that they were having the time of their life – as was everyone who was there.
Maybe there will be negative comments about the cost of staging a Super League game in Las Vegas or pricing out the regular fans for a match that would have been a Wigan home game. But the bottom line is that Rugby League in England received a massive boost just by being in Las Vegas and that can only be good for the sport.
For example, my wife was talking to an American lady in a shop and she could not conceal her excitement, explaining that she had never heard of Rugby League and when she Googled it she could not believe how brutal it was. It is safe to say she was hooked.
Not everyone will understand or even like the fact the game was over here in Vegas, but all eyes were on our product and that can only be a good thing.
I was in Las Vegas last year for the first instalment of this amazing concept, but it felt different this year and more Americans seemed to be interested in what was on offer.
If the Las Vegas adventure fails to take off, it will not be through a lack of trying.